October 26, 2008

One afternoon Hedwig Chappelle and her friend go for a walk and stumble upon a baby great horned owl. He’s quickly picked up by Mr. Chappelle taken to a vet the next day. The vet gives the owl a clean bill of health and after unsuccessfully trying to return the owl to where they found him the family names him Otis and turns him over to an animal rehabilitator.

There Otis learns many things such as flying expertly and loving great music to understanding English and the language of other animals. Once Otis is released to the wild he travels back to visit the Chappelle family and begins a search to find his family with the help of thousands of animals that come from the east, west, north and south and even one special visitor from the sky.

The book has a very good premise and I liked it for the most part however the writing didn’t fulfill its potential. The storyline is somewhat choppy and I get that it’s a fantasy but some of the story is too over the top with a weird bit of out of place religion thrown in at the end. If you run across this book somewhere I’d say you should take the opportunity to read it but in my opinion I wouldn’t recommend running out to buy it.